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Ceres, Turlock, & Manteca celebrate with laughs

By JASON CAMPBELL

209 Living

MODESTO – Tired of the standard New Year’s Eve party?

Over the idea of standing in a bar with strangers?

Then Anthony K has the solution.

The Ceres-born comic will be headlining a pair of comedy shows on the last day of 2016 at Modesto’s Prospect Theater – bringing with him Manteca comic Chris Teicheira as the host, Manteca comic Jason Sohm as a featured act and Turlock comic Taylor Evans as an additional featured act.

Essentially, the Deaf Puppies are hoping to make you laugh one last time before the calendar rolls over to the New Year.

“I always look forward to shows like this because people go through a lot of effort to come out and enjoy themselves,” said Krayenhagen – the former podcasting partner of Teicheira, a finalist in the Big Sky and San Francisco International Comedy Competitions, and the winner of the first annual Modesto Clean Comedy Competition. “They go out and get a babysitter and get dressed up and it’s a big deal to come out to this and so I want to make sure I give them the best show possible – we’re both going to experience this together, so I want it to be the best it can be.”

The event is being produced by Chris Ricci Presents.

With his star rising in the comedy world, Krayenhagen is one of a number of comics in the group that refers to itself as the “Deaf Puppies” – named after Teicheira’s deaf puppy Banshee – that has become a force in the Central Valley comedy scene. United by their love of all things funny, the group has produced its own comedy shows – including one recently at The Pub and Longue in Manteca – and has moved onto social media with a series of video shorts that make fun of everything from crazy drink names to the scorching Central Valley heat.

With his unique brand of humor that mines everyday life for the hilarious and the off-putting, Krayenhagen has also become a hot commodity for corporate events and has a number of private Christmas parties lined up between now and the end of the year where he’ll offer his hilarious insights in a way that only he can.

And sometimes, he said, you need somebody around that knows what it’s like to share your thoughts and ideas with the world to get the perspective needed.

“It’s a team of people that are all friends and you tend to gravitate towards people that all have that similar worldview,” Krayenhagen said of the Deaf Puppies. “We hand out together and party together and it’s a cool thing to be able to have that camaraderie with people who know about comedy from the performance aspect.

“The scene here is getting bigger every year – there are lots of comics that I hear about that I haven’t met yet – and it’s getting a lot bigger.”

Tickets for the shows – which are scheduled for Dec. 31 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. – are available on Ticketfly.com or $20. The tickets are general admission, and with only 150 seats in the theater, are expected to sell out quickly.

For those who can’t make it out on New Year’s Eve – don’t worry. Krayenhagen has you covered there as well.

For months now he has been hosting a bi-monthly comedy show at Modesto’s Cheroot Cigar Longue – located at 915 10th Street – on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7:30 p.m. The shows are open to the public and completely free and serve as a way for Krayenhagen to bring quality comics from throughout Northern California and beyond to the Central Valley.

“It’s a great room and it’s been growing each and every week – this last week we actually had about 25 people standing in the back because there weren’t enough eats,” he said. “And we’re expecting business to pick up even more now that its winter time and people want to go to place where they can sit inside and relax.